Challenges and opportunities for material recovery and reuse in the construction & demolition industry in Zuid-Holland and the role of Blockchain

Abstract

Urban areas are becoming more densely populated. More than 50% of the global population is already located in them. The Netherlands is among the countries with the highest population density. In 2017, 80% of its population was living in urban areas. It is expected that by 2050 the Netherlands will need between 300’000 and 1.6 million new homes. Construction & demolition (C&D) is characterized as a rsource-intensive industry and among the largest consumer of ntural resources. Urban areas account for 80% of global greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) and their infrastructures generate 50% of the total waste produced on earth. Additionally, the increased demand for housing and infrastructure will lead to increased demand for virgin materials and resources, and in turn more waste. From this perspective, the C&D industry will provide a significant contribution to sustainability and will be an important industry for the transition towards a circular economy (CE). The Netherlands has set very ambitious circularity targets for this industry. Specifically, the Government’s Real Estate Agency and Rijkswaterstraat must become fully circular by 2030. Circularity principles address the entire life-cycle of goods and resources, including
waste management practices. The overarching objective is to keep resources within closed loops and at their highest level of utility without losing their technical and economic integrity. As of now, 88% of waste generated yearly by the Dutch C&D industry is currently down-cycled for road backfilling purposes, 1-3% is currently reused or up-cycled for high-value practices and the remaining is incinerated.

The objective of this study is to identify the challenges that are characterizing recovery and reuse practices in the C&D industry in Zuid-Holland and make a preliminary assessment on whether Blockchain (through DLT and Smart contracts technologies) can be a suitable solution for addressing them. The methods
employed for conducting this study blend desk research with qualitative research (in the form of semistructured interviews) and a decision-making framework to assess the use of Blockchain technology.

The results indicate that the materials and construction elements to be considered more interesting concerning reuse and recovery are bricks, steel profiles and window/door frames. The decision-making process driving their reuse and recovery is company-specific and differs significantly across firms. In general, the data required for assessing the feasibility of reuse and recovery for construction elements are the material composition of new and old buildings, supply-and-demand specific information (volume and timing), technical specification and quality-related data as well as market prices. Challenges characterizing reuse and recovery practices are several. First, construction and demolition activities and asset management practices are asynchronous and separated by large time gaps. Material procurement starts significantly earlier than demolition activities and the process needs to be accurate and based on
reliable data. Data management practices are inconsistent and not harmonized among companies. Digital asset management tools (such as BIM), are employed by large companies only and their use on a national scale is neither harmonized nor compulsory. These aspect limit the economic feasibility of reuse and
recovery practices as the accuracy and reliability of data for driving decision-making is poor or nonexisting. Intra-project and intra-firm data sharing are therefore not possible. A Blockchain system which integrates smart contracts and distributed-ledger-technology (DLT) can partly address and tackle these
issues. To address them fully, however, Blockchain technology must be combined with an asset management tool like BIM for making the solution consistent and scalable at an industry level which in turn requires the implementation of national and industry-wide data management protocols and standards that would harmonize the collection, management and distribution of data across the C&D industry. The Netherlands, unlike other EU member states, has, at this point, no government-driven digitalization strategy in place and is rather opting for a market-driven transition.